Introduction
Welcome to my corner! Last week, I shared my thoughts on the film Night Watch. This week, I'm sharing my thoughts on the film The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
Enjoy!
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a 2021 animated science fiction road comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation. It was written and directed by Mike Rianda (in his feature directorial debut) and Jeff Rowe and produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht. The film stars the voices of Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Rianda, Eric André and Olivia Colman, with Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Charlyne Yi, Blake Griffin, Conan O'Brien and Doug the Pug in supporting roles. The story follows the dysfunctional Mitchell family who must save Earth from a global uprising of robots.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines was planned for theatrical release by Sony Pictures released under the title Connected in 2020. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theaters, Sony sold the distribution rights to Netflix outside of China. Netflix retitled it to Rianda and Rowe's original title, and limit-released it in theaters on April 23, 2021 before its streaming release a week later on April 30.
The film received acclaim for its animation, voice acting, action sequences, themes, humor, visual effects and LGBTQ+ representation. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards, the 75th British Academy Film Awards and the 94th Academy Awards and won the category at the 27th Critics Choice Awards. It swept all the categories it was nominated for at the 49th Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, making it the second film by Sony Pictures Animation to do so after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2019.
Plot: Young Katie Mitchell embarks on a road trip with her proud parents, younger brother and beloved dog to start her first year at film school. But, their plans to bond as a family soon get interrupted when the world's electronic devices come to life to stage an uprising. With help from two friendly robots, the Mitchells must now come together to save one another—and the planet—from the new technological revolution.
Voice Acting: It's a little bit harder to talk about the voice acting performances than it is live acting performances. All of the actors did exquisite jobs in this movie, so I won't have much to mention.
Abbi Jacobson voices Katie Mitchell. So far, the four films or shows she's known for are: Broad City show, A League of Their Own show, The Mitchells vs. the Machines and Disenchantment show.
Danny McBride voices Rick Mitchell. I swear I thought Kevin James was the voice actor because McBride sounded so much like James as Rick Mitchell. His four most notable works include: Pineapple Express, Your Highness, Vice Principals television show, and Tropic Thunder.
Maya Rudolph voices Linda Mitchell. I freaking love Maya Rudolph! I like her even in movies that I don't enjoy, which there are some. Currently, her four most notable works are: Bridesmaids, Away We Go, Saturday Night Live and The Way Way Back.
Mike Rianda voices Aaron Mitchell, a talking dog, the Furbies, the Giant Furby and a Wi-Fi enthusiast, I did not realize the director of this movie also voiced Aaron; I love that! When I first watched the movie, I thought Aaron's voice didn't sound right or was too adultlike, but it grew on me throughout the movie. His four notable works include: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Work short, The Mitchells vs, the Machines and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Technical Aspects: The film's animation was handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks, who had animated the majority of Sony Pictures Animation's films beforehand. According to Christopher Miller, Rianda wanted "hand-painted watercolor style" look for the film, and much of the technology used for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was reused for The Mitchells vs. the Machines to achieve this while new tools were created. Unlike Into the Spider-Verse's comic-book style visuals and techniques, Mitchells predominately used 2D-style effects to mimic the look of traditionally-animated films, including the use of squiggles for fur and watercolor brush strokes for elements such as trees and bushes. To emphasize Katie Mitchell's emotions during certain scenes, the team additionally implemented a technique called "Katie-Vision", which implements stock 2D and live-action footage alongside the CG animation.
When it came to designing the robot elements, the animators went for a sleeker, polished design to contrast with the watercolor style for the humans. For the PAL MAX Prime robots, animation supervisor Alan Hawkins inverted a method that allows the robots to break apart mid-movement via negative space, inspired by the morphing effects used for the T-1000 as seen in the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day. According to Hawkins, he invented tools that would allow animators to "slice through the character [like a knife]" and allowed each one to have their different approach as well.
Animation work begun in May 2019, as confirmed by animator Nick Kondo on Twitter. The film was officially completed on September 16, 2020. That seems like such a short period of time for an animated movie!
In what is believed to be a first for an animated film, Doug the Pug, a real-life dog that was popular on social media, provided the "voice" for Monchi, who is based on Rianda's own childhood dog Monchichi. While they had originally considered using human voice actors for Monchi as typically done, they wanted to make the movie as authentic as possible and sought out Doug's owners to use his barks and other sounds for the film. I love this! I remember seeing a news story about this when the movie was released.
Final Thoughts: The Mitchells vs. the Machines is definitely one of my all-time favorite movies. I've rewatched SO MANY times I can't even count. I love the story, the characters, the voices and the animation! I connect a lot with this movie. I can relate to Katie, which is probably why this movie is so dear to me.
As you may know by now, I attended college in Minnesota for Animation, which isn't a big industry in South Dakota. But, I also didn't want to be far from home. I've never been one to "fit in" with groups, or the norm, but I've also never tried to. For the most part, I've always been comfortable with who I am, which happens to be the whole point of The Mitchells vs. the Machines! I would definitely recommend watching this movie!
Where to watch it: You can watch The Mitchells vs. the Machines on Netflix. Or you can purchase or rent a digital copy for a few dollars. I've also donated a DVD copy of the film to the Emil M. Larson Library in Clark for you all to enjoy if you choose to.
That's it for this week! What were your thoughts? Feel free to share them with us! You can call us, email us, visit us at the office, leave us a comment or message on Facebook, or even mail us something. Keep the comments, suggestions, questions, submissions, etc. coming our way! We'd love to hear from you!
